Mango in World Philately

Kalyan Chakraborti, Monanjali Bandyopadhyay*, Dilip Kumar Misra, Sanjit Debnath, Debalina Majhi, Kushal Roy, Fatik Kumar Bauri and Ankita Roy

AICRP on Fruits, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani, Nadia; * Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, India.

Abstract

Philately is a novel approach to be taught further concerning a country vis-à-vis of the world. It endows with a method towards the connectivity by extension education and knowledge management and this role may not be denied in the contemporary educational system. Philately is the hobby of collecting and studying postage and revenue stamp, first day and special cover and other postal stationary and souvenir. It involves more than just stamp collecting; it includes the study of postal history withal. Where ever communication takes place, it has some content. Definitely philately has a content to be communicated for understanding of a country. It may serve as a pivotal role in the communication and management. Philately has highlighted country’s culture, heritage, folklore, flora and fauna, agriculture, advances in science and technology, important places, famous personalities, auspicious occasions and other aspects of national life from time to time. Keeping these in view, a survey on the documents and items of mango crop ( _Mangifera_ _indica_ ) in the world philately has been carried out followed by content analysis pertaining to the date of issues, their denominations, particulars and remarks to the commemoratives, special and definitive stamps along with their brochures. There are some examples of mango philately.
In 18th June, 2002, Pakistan issued 4 stamps on the title 'Fruits of Pakistan' depicting Mango with Rs. 4 each. The varieties were shown as Anwar Ratol, Dusehri (Dashehari), Sindhri and Chaunsa (Chousa).

We know that Pakistan is an important mango growing country in the world (5th mango growing country of the world as per FAO year book of 2001) and 53,000 tons of mango is exported to Afghanistan,  Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UK, France, Malaysia, Singapore etc. fetching a huge amount of foreign exchange. A postage stamp was issued in Cuba in 1963 showing tropical fruit -- mango with denomination 13c. A postage stamp was printed in Polynesia on mango on 6th August, 2010 with denomination 100 F.  In 2013, a postage stamp was also published from Polynesia on mango with denomination 100 f. The mango was introduced in Polynesia in 1848 and was quickly adopted by the people. Some mango varieties are consumed unripe by the Polynesian, soaked in salt and vinegar. In 2015 a postage stamp was printed in Antigua and Barbuda with Julie Mango tree of 25 ¢ denomination.

In January, 2012, a stamp on _Mangifera_ _odorata_ of denomination 10 RM was published from Malaysia. In 1992 a postage stamp on mango was printed in Malagasy with 1400 Franc (280 Ariary) denomination. A postage stamp was published from Laos with 20K denomination. In 1985, a stamp on mango plant with ripe fruits was published from Montserrat with denomination 1.15$. Therefore, the present work is the brief account of the communication on Mango as depicted in the world philately which may include in the course curricula of undergraduate students of Horticulture in State Agriculture Universities. The learners can easily identify the mango growing countries from the philatelic pictures and they will understand about their occurrence, distribution and provenance of production while satisfying their noble hobby. The Agriculturist and Horticulturist should, therefore, classify all the postage stamps of the world on the basis of crop diversity; and on the basis of provenance viz. continents and countries for well understanding of the phyto-geography of different crops, their place of production and the probable destination for Exim trade.
Key words: Exim business, Indian Post, Mango,  Phyto-geography, World Philately.